Want to win women over to conservatism? Take a cue from Ivanka Trump

There’s no question that November was the “dudes rock” election.

After President Trump took his college-age son Barron’s advice and took his message to a bunch of comedic, manosphere-adjacent podcasts, the young male demo turned out for him in droves.

On ‘Skinny Confidential,’ Ivanka preached female empowerment without invoking cringey, feminist victimhood or posing family as an obstacle to women’s success.

While Trump also saw a 7% jump in votes from young women, the gender gap that’s been dogging the GOP since the 1980s persists. The female vote simply remains elusive to Republicans.

The wrong approach

Why? One theory is that conservative outreach to women has been ineffective because it has applied a heavy political hand instead of an inspirational, nurturing, and creative one. From a marketing standpoint, the secret to winning women may be to play a sisterly role, as exemplified by Ivanka Trump’s recent appearance on popular female-focused podcast, “Skinny Confidential.”

In the episode, the poised, business-savvy Trump daughter revealed intimate details of her childhood as well as insight on her life as a mother and entrepreneur.

Ivanka also praised her own mother, Ivana. “She really was this unbelievable role model for what a working woman could be, almost in mythological terms,” she said. “She was impossibly glamorous, while also being a working woman at a time when there were many, many more barriers, much higher expectations, for both her in a boardroom context, much less forgivable absences for a school play or a doctor’s appointment …”

To illustrate the point, Ivanka recounted a childhood memory of her mother strutting through a casino construction site.

“She points like one perfectly lacquered finger up to the sky and doesn’t even tilt her head, at least in my memory, and says to the general manager: ‘There’s a light bulb out.’ And I look up and there’s more lights than there are stars in the sky.”

To the podcast’s many female viewers, this was an aspirational story of a fabulous woman of refinement, intelligence, and confidence — traits we all hope to develop.

‘Daddy’ issues

It was a refreshing change from Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy,” the podcast presidential candidate Kamala Harris chose to appear on in her outreach to young women voters.

“Call Her Daddy” appeals to a far different feminine ideal — that of the sexually “liberated” woman unafraid of manipulating men to get what she wants. It’s no wonder that fans were scandalized when Cooper quietly got engaged and married, choosing a conservative lifestyle after misleading her female audience into participating in hookup culture.

Yet Cooper’s podcast is undeniably popular, second only to Joe Rogan’s.

Leaving aside female political junkies who love to consume the news, the average young female listener, I would venture to say, is more responsive to conversational, fun content like Cooper’s, where the values are communicated more tacitly than explicitly. This is a prime opportunity for conservative-minded creators to attract more women by leaning into the topics that women enjoy first, putting politics second.

On “Skinny Confidential,” Ivanka preached female empowerment without invoking cringey, feminist victimhood or posing family as an obstacle to women’s success. Ivanka beamed as she talked about her daughter’s maturation, noting that Arabella asked her for self-defense classes of her own accord. Now, weekly jiujitsu is a Trump family affair and “moving meditation” for them, prompting Ivanka to discuss another topic of female enjoyment and new gateway to the GOP: health and wellness.

Default progressivism

With RFK Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, the subject of health and wellness is prompting many women to reconsider their default progressive setting. Since Jane Fonda and the “Let’s Get Physical” era of the 1980s, fitness has been a female interest — holistic body awareness, not so much. The latter has likely been overshadowed by so-called “reproductive health” — doublespeak for abortion.

But now, women are increasingly sensitive to what they are ingesting and suspicious of authoritative claims of “safety,” especially after the draconian Democratic response to COVID. There is also the resentment and shock of many women struggling with the fertility-complicating effects of hormonal birth control, long pushed as harmless by the medical industry, despite its many side effects and unknown long-term consequences. They’re questioning an FDA that is overwhelmingly deferential to food companies when it comes to introducing ingredients that lack long-term studies.

Brands like “Skinny Confidential” and Alex Clark’s “Culture Apothecary” are tapping into this ripe market by offering women knowledge of their bodies in cute packaging as well as a comforting hand to hold as they navigate the Wild West of wellness.

Want to breathe better and maximize the oxygen your body takes in at night, while developing a chiseled jawline (without invasive plastic surgery)? Try the mouth tape “Skinny Confidential” offers. Want to reduce face inflammation? Try the ice roller. As body positivity comes under scrutiny too, more women are questioning whether processed foods could be sabotaging their weight-loss efforts.

There are many other attractive and appealing female personalities and celebrities who haven’t declared a party affiliation but are conservative-coded. They’ve given clues with their wholesome lifestyles and proud features of their family on social media. Paige Lorenze, Sofia Richie Grainge, and Kristin Cavallari are among them.

After years of liberal propaganda, women want to see the full range of their experience represented: a rich, life-affirming vision of womanhood that prizes homemaking without shaming professional ambition and that encourages beauty and health without demonizing aging.

Their hearts and minds are there for the right to win, if we only take up the challenge.